Chattanooga police officer Daniel Anderson spends his days putting bad guys in jail and helping people in need. The skills he employs allow him to fulfill his duty to protect the city and its people. Then his shift ends and his work as Realtor Daniel Anderson begins.
The transition is easier than one might think because Anderson employs many of the same skills on both jobs.
“When you’re a police officer, you’re always on call. And when you receive a call, you respond to it immediately,” he says. “It’s the same thing with real estate. If someone wants to look at a house, you do it then and there.
“If someone told you a thousand dollars was lying on a railroad track, and all you had to do was pick it up, wouldn’t you go right away? Someone wanting to look at a house is the same kind of opportunity.”
Anderson was surprised when he answered his phone once and the man on the other end said, “I finally got a Realtor on the phone.” To date, Anderson has handled 12 transactions for the man.
As a police officer, Anderson also learned to treat everyone equally, regardless of their economic status. He now does this as a Realtor, too. “When I was growing up, my family was treated badly because we didn’t have much money. I have sold five hundred thousand dollar houses and I have sold houses under eight thousand dollars.”
Throughout his years of service as a police officer, Anderson also learned valuable interpersonal skills he’s now employing as a Realtor. “Part of my job as a police officer involves keeping people calm. The same thing applies to real estate. Buying a home is an emotional time, so I let my clients know everything is going to be okay and then I back up what I said with my actions.”
Anderson’s work as a police officer has also boosted his confidence, which benefits his real estate clients. “I’m not afraid to talk with anyone. Compared to what I’ve been through in law enforcement, negotiating a contract is easy,” he says, laughing.
As a police officer, Anderson learned to be observant, partly as a survival tactic. Again, he draws a parallel to real estate: “I used to think no one knew people better than a police officer. But now I believe sales people do because they have learned to be observant and pick up on everything.”
Anderson drew inspiration for the kind of Realtor he wanted to be over the course of purchasing several homes and being served poorly. “I would call my Realtor, but not get a call back. Once, I received bad information because the agent was treating me like a second-rate client. It wasn’t a million dollar home, but to a police officer, a hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money.”
Anderson grew up in Highland Park, joined the Marines in 1990, and bid Chattanooga farewell. “I was never coming back,” he says. “After four years in California and Southern Georgia, I couldn’t wait to return to Chattanooga.”
Anderson worked in loss prevention at Kmart and then became a part-time auxiliary officer with the Chattanooga police department. “I worked 20 hours a week for ten dollars an hour,” he says. “I would have done it for free.”
In 1996, the police department hired Anderson full-time. Over the next several years, he performed bike patrols downtown, joined the SWAT team, and worked in the special investigations division. Anderson left the force for one year to work in diplomatic security in Iraq, then returned and resumed his duties.
He also got bit by the real estate bug. “I wanted to have my own business,” he says. “I like the concept of eating what you kill. Essentially, your return on something equals the amount of effort you put into it. I can go out and catch every bad guy in Chattanooga, but my pay will stay the same. With real estate, I decide how much I’ll make.”
Anderson knew succeeding as a Realtor would require hard work and diligence. But he didn’t realize it would take more than that.
“If a gunman entered a restaurant in which I was eating, I wouldn’t be afraid. As long as I had my gun, I’d tell everyone, ‘Get behind me; I’ve got this,’” he says. “But my first few months in real estate were scary. I’d break out in a cold sweat.”
Anderson says a number of fellow agents at the downtown Keller Williams office took him under their wings and guided him through the rough patch, including Charlotte Mabry, Todd Henon, Mark Hite, and others. “Whenever I called them with a question, they answered their phone and told me what to do. They took the time to show me the ropes,” he says.
More recently, Anderson has found help in the form of his wife, Sherri, a CPA working in the audit department at Johnson, Hickey and Murchison – and a Realtor. He handles the in-person stuff, while she labors behind the scenes and serves as a buyer’s agent.
She says they make a good team. “He’s a good people person, and I’m the nerdy paperwork girl. I like organizing things behind the scenes while he does the face-to-face stuff,” she says.
Sherri doesn’t always linger behind the scenes. Anderson and his wife will often show houses to couples together. “I’ll show the woman the closets and the kitchen, and he’ll show the man the garage. It puts couples at ease,” she says.
Being an officer of the law can be stressful and taxing. Being a Realtor can be the same. But Anderson says having two jobs keeps him focused on both. “If my real estate work starts to interfere with my work on the force, by policy, I’ll have to cut real estate,” he says.
Anderson is used to people asking him why he works two full-time jobs. His answer is simple: his work ethic came from his dad, an air traffic controller who lost his job in the strike in the ‘80s. “A lot of men walked out on their families because they couldn’t handle the stress. But not my dad. He worked four part-time jobs to support a family of six,” he says.
Besides, Anderson finds both jobs gratifying, and wouldn’t want to give up either one.
“As a police officer, I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping a stranded motorist change a tire or giving someone walking along the road with a gas can a ride to a station,” he says. “And in real estate, one of my best memories is of helping a newly married couple buy their first home.”
As hard as Anderson works, he also makes time to play. One of his favorite things to do is grab Sherri and take off on a road trip on his Harley. The couple also enjoys working out together, renovating their home, and attending charity events.
Whether Anderson is performing his duties as a Chattanooga police officer or acting as someone’s real estate agent, he’s serving his community and the needs of its people. The parallels between his two jobs might not be apparent to everyone, but a close look brings them into focus. That doesn’t mean Anderson doesn’t see the glaring differences between his two jobs, which again boil down to his interactions with people.
“The biggest differences between the people I deal with as a police officer and my real estate clients are my clients are better people, they’re happy to see me, and they pay me for my efforts,” he says.
Sherri, having heard this one before, smiles and rolls her eyes.